Anger grows in the cold, dark

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Staring at a sixth day without power in a house as cold as a refrigerator, a frustrated John Johnson finally was able to borrow a generator from a neighbor yesterday.

David Eggert, The Columbus Dispatch

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Staring at a sixth day without power in a house as cold as a refrigerator, a frustrated John Johnson finally was able to borrow a generator from a neighbor yesterday.

He “never in a million years” thought his tree-lined city neighborhood near Michigan State University would be without electricity this long. But it could be Sunday or even the middle of next week before the power is back after a weekend ice storm that tore off tree limbs and snuffed out lights from Michigan to Maine and into Canada over the Christmas holiday.

“Hopefully, I make it through without any frozen pipes until the (utility) gets in here,” said Johnson, 63, as he tried setting up the generator to warm the house above 40 degrees before giving it back to his neighbor.

Michigan bore the brunt of the storm as nearly 600,000 homes and businesses lost power. As of yesterday afternoon, about 60,000 customers remained in the dark.

Maine reported almost 12,000 outages and, in eastern Canada, nearly 62,000 still hadn’t had their power restored, including 33,000 in Toronto.

Anger has begun to build. In Surry, Maine, one Bangor Hydro customer approached a line crew and then made a threatening phone call on Thursday after learning the crew wasn’t working to restore his power. The utility temporarily had the crew leave the area until police investigated. No charges will be filed against the man, state police said.

In Lansing, Mich., police were investigating at least two burglaries at homes that the occupants had left after their power went out, according to reports.

Maj. Joel Maatman, with the Ingham County sheriff’s office in Michigan, said residents in rural areas — like many hit by the storm — have past experience with bad weather and had generators that allowed them to stay in their homes.

“I’ve been here since 1975, and I don’t remember an ice storm like this,” said Maatman, who used a portable generator and wood-burning stove for power and heat. “I live out in the sticks, and you got to have a generator.”

The Ace Hardware store in Ortonville, Mich., was flooded with people looking for items that would help get them through the power outages, according to manager Tim Tyler.

The one item Tyler didn’t have in stock: portable, gas-powered generators.

“If I had a boatload or truckload I would have sold all of them,” he said yesterday afternoon, nearly a week after the huge ice storm began sliding through. “People were calling and asking if we had any, and we didn’t. This whole town was out of power for over 24 hours. Some are starting to come back now.”

Besides the ice, falling branches and vicious cold, just keeping warm became dangerous. Five people apparently died from carbon-monoxide poisoning tied to using gas-powered generators.

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